1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to systems for handling and storing used cooking oil in restaurants and similar facilities.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There has been a tremendous proliferation of fast food restaurants in the United States in recent years. These facilities employ large quantities of cooking oils for frying hamburgers, potatoes, sea food, chicken and sundry other food stuffs.
Many state and municipal health codes specify that these cooking oils, after being used for cooking purposes, cannot be reused in a manner intended for human consumption. But used cooking oils do have utility as a base for soap, glue, animal food and the like. To this end, many fast food restaurants have developed procedures for storing these used oils for resale. However, these oils frequently contain food particles and other solids. Further, at room temperature these oils solidify, and are difficult to work with.
Prior art patents of interest to the present invention include U.S. Pat. No. 2,745,572 to Talbott, which discloses a dispensing system for applying molasses to stock feed in which a storage tank holds the molasses and has a heating element for maintaining the molasses in a fluid condition, the system also including a pump with a flexible hose and certain valves for operating the system in the intended manner. In U.S. Pat. No. 2,258,637, Young dicloses a storage system for oil.
Additionally, there are a large number of prior art patents which disclose techniques for handling used cooking oils for regenerating the oil at the restaurant for reuse. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,368,682; 2,698,092; 3,107,601; 3,613,550; 3,707,907; 3,517,732; 3,613,555.
In U.S. Pat. No. 2,122,260, Moore et al. disclosed a system for deodorizing and bleaching oils. Fresenius, in U.S. Pat. No. 722,832, discloses a method of purifying cooking fats; a similar arrangement is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,075,070 to Upton.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,646,882, Keating discloses an in situ filter for a deep fat fryer; a similar system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,759,388 to Thomason. A pressurized cooking system useful in fast food restaurant facilities is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,608,472 to Pelster et al.